Kevin Barry

freak

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I didn't see it posted anywhere, but it looks like the Braves have brought up Kevin Barry from the minors.
 
The only Kevin Barry I knew of was the martyr in the Irish war of independence back in the 1920s, so I looked this one up in the Baseball Prospectus:

"His numbers at Richmond look decent enough until you consider his age [28]. Barry's an organizational arm whose greatest contribution to the Braves in 2006 was a pulse. He gave up a ton of fly balls, opponents slugged an unsurprising .442 against him, and he responded by nibbling and walking people. He's unlikely to see much time in Atlanta in the future, lest some apocalyptic pitching scenarios arise." (emphasis mine)

He apparently pitched 25 innings in Atlanta last year, but honestly I don't remember him. It must have been in mop-up duty late in the year when the Braves were out of it and college football had started up. His minor-league stats haven't been bad, but as it says, he's 28, so he's not really a prospect. My guess is that he's been brought up for long relief while somebody else (probably Villarreal) goes into the fifth spot in the rotation.
 
You never bring me good news. :p

:lol:
 
You never bring me good news. :p

:lol:

Yeah, I know. Saltalamacchia is a very good prospect, but unfortunately our enthusiasm for him has to be tempered because he's got McCann in front of him. He's probably too valuable and too good a defensive catcher to move to 1B or LF, so they'll most likely end up dealing him -- unless they end up dealing McCann instead for something even better. I just wish the Braves were bringing up a hot young prospect for a position at which they had an actual need.
 
Unfortunately the Braves' farm system is not in great shape right now. In the Prospectus's list of the 100 best prospects, you've got to go all the way down to Salty at #51 to find a Brave. You've got Matt Harrison (RHP) at #79 and Neftali Perez (RHP) at #98, and that's it.

Meanwhile the Mets have three of the top 35 guys. Ugh.
 
It may just be that the cupboard is bare because the system has belched out three good young players in the last few years -- McCann, Francoeur, and LaRoche -- and the first two of those guys have legitimate chances to be all-star type players. That's pretty good. But for the next couple of years, at least, they don't have any "can't-miss" type prospects coming up, the way you could see Andruw Jones, Rafael Furcal coming all the way up the system -- other than maybe Saltalamacchia. And they've already got a catcher, unfortunately.
 

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